


Shoot Twice

by Greet



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Animal Death, Baekhyun is a cop, Byun Baekhyun-centric, Chanyeol is a hunter, F/M, Graphic Depictions of Illness, M/M, Mentions of Cancer, Murder Mystery, Mystery, Park Chanyeol-centric, Snow
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-02-09
Updated: 2018-02-27
Packaged: 2019-03-16 01:57:56
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,054
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13626153
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Greet/pseuds/Greet
Summary: Chanyeol belongs in the mountains, rifle strapped to his back, and lungs full of fresh, freezing air. He's a hunter.Baekhyun belongs in the city. He's a rookie federal agent who's in way over his head.





	1. Prologue

_ Shoot Twice _

 

_ One _

 

Someone once told him that people came here to die. Up in the cold where snow and ice carried on endlessly for miles, and people huddled inside their wooden-lodges and wither away. There was no spring and summer, instead intense bouts of blazing sun and searing blizzards, the sky constantly churning like watercolors spilled out upon a lilac and golden dome. He didn’t come here to die. He thrived here, boots heavy at his feet as he plowed through the thickness of the snow, trusty sniper rifle pressed close to his chest. 

 

Jagged mountains painting the horizon faded into deep and rolling valleys, blankets of pristine white sweeping in large arches that danced along the earth as the wind tossed the loose snow to the side. The tracks ahead of him were deep, but disappearing as the wind picked up. The storm wasn’t supposed to hit for hours. He looked up, the cold air stinging his nostrils. It was coming sooner than expected.

 

The tracks continued on, ducking into the thickness of trees to the right, drawing him out of the open valley. The canopy of thick pine trees shielded the tracks from the wind, and he could see clearly the way they curved up the steep incline of the hill. Each step he took crunched through the snow. He shifted the rifle from his chest and unhooked the strap from around his shoulders. He grabbed the front and pressed the butt into his shoulder, crouching as he crept forward. 

 

Ahead, he could see the thickness of the trees begin to thin. He laid down, his chest pressed flush against the freezing earth. He pressed the rifle close to the side of his face, chin resting on the cool, white plastic as he squinted, staring down the crosshair. The wolf stood ahead, trotting in a circle as it circled a downed rabbit. It’s white snout was stained red, the deep crimson burning into the fur and the snow beneath it. Another ran through his sight, circling the other, nudging it with the side of its snout.

 

He slowly exhaled, and rested his finger on the trigger. He drew in a sharp breath and held it. The wolves were clueless, nuzzling their snouts into the rabbit’s corpse. He pulled the trigger, a silent yet resound  _ click _ echoing across the hill. He dropped his gaze from the sight and stood. The bodies from the distance resembled two small snow mounds, the only indicator of the violence the smudges of red beneath them. He trudged heavy through the snow and approached the three bodies. He shot through the first wolf and wounded the other, luckily killing them both in one shot. Their bodies lay around the rabbit, blood seeping into the snow.

 

“I’m sorry,” he muttered. 

 

X

 

“You get those wolves?”

  
“Took down two of them by Vickery River,” he said. He sat back in the seat, feet propped up on the wooden coffee table. Do Kyungsoo sat across from him, hands trembling around a mug. His hands were thick and calloused from years of work and growing up on a farm. He was a younger man, his face round and somber as his features flickered around the room, his eyes wide and ruthless as he stared at him. 

 

Do Kyungsoo always managed to radiate an air of tension and judgment. His wide, brown orbs were critical and analytical, his lips neutral as he listened, not even a flicker of emotion crossing his brow. He was a man with history- with thick parchment papers so dense and damaged that he wouldn’t dare to turn the pages. What was written on those pages would always be lost, he realized, Do Kyungsoo’s entire posture a sealed padlock over the book, forever blinding outward eye to its contents.

 

Kyungsoo’s face remained neutral. “Good,” he said. “Did they suffer?”

  
“No more than they had to.” 

 

“I’d think they already had to suffer plenty,” he countered.

 

He stared at Kyungsoo, at his hands. They stopped trembling as the older man leaned forward and pressed the mug down on the table. “Get your boots off my table.”

 

He complied, shuffling them down and sitting upright against the sofa. “They don’t know any better,” he said. “It isn’t’ right, but they’re just trying to survive out here. Like the rest of us.”

  
“I care more about my family’s survival than some gangly dog,” Kyungsoo said, dipping his head. “It’s best that you leave. Heard the Sheriff’s been looking for you.”

 

He stood and straightened the collar of his coat. He knelt and collected his tarps and snow camo layers he had shed on the ground. “Yeah? What does he want?”

 

“Something about a bear,” Kyungsoo cracked. “You know how paranoid Suho can be.”

 

He nodded and gathered all of his things, stuffing it in his duffel and shouldering it. He lifted his head. Kyungsoo’s living room was small, but homey. Raw wood paneling lined the walls and trim, books far too dusty to have ever been used adorned a worn-out, off-white bookshelf, and several mismatched frames with two lovely women and Kyungsoo littered the entire room, whether nailed to the wall or perched against books. Up here, there was little else to be done. Family was everything. The cold took his everything away. 

“Better go over there, then,” he said. He turned his back to Kyungsoo and made haste towards the door. 

“Chanyeol,” Kyungsoo called.

 

He turned, his head barely jerked over his shoulder. “What?”   
  


“Are you looking again?” 

Chanyeol hesitated. He looked Kyungsoo up and down, his posture squared. “I never stopped.” 

Closing the door behind him with a dull click, Chanyeol pulled his leather gloves over his hands and tucked them inside his coat pocket, fishing out his set of keys. The sky around him was getting heavier and in the distance he could see darkness looming. A storm was on its way. 

 

X

 

“You wanted to see me?” Chanyeol inquired as he closed to the door to the police hut located in the heart of the town. He kept his hunting pack on his back, expecting the Sheriff to send him

 

Suho stood by the far-back window, his hands tucked into the pockets of his pea-coat, eyes framed with thick black-framed glasses. Unlike Kyungsoo, his face was expressive and sharp, eyes delicately curled and bright. Her expression was stern yet gentle, turning to look at Chanyeol thoughtfully, his lips pulled into a lazy lopsided smile. 

 

“Come on in,” he said, gesturing to the empty space between them. “I take it you visited Kyungsoo?”   
  
Chanyeol offered a curt nod, shifting the rifle on his back to the opposite shoulder with a soft grunt. Carrying around so much gear was exhausting, but he was the best at his job- hunting the animals that hunt the livestock- and it paid him enough that he considered the pain of hauling endurable. 

  
“I did,” he said. “He told me that you’ve been looking for me? Why not just ask me yourself?”   
  
Suho laughed and took a seat behind the small wooden desk tucked in the far left corner. “We both know you’re impossible to find. Especially when you don’t want to be found.”   
  
“I was working-”

 

“Exactly. But Kyungsoo delivered the message, and that’s all that matters to me,” Suho interjected. “You’re welcome to disappear whenever you want, it’s your job, but I need you right now.”   
  
“A bear?” Chanyeol asked, his interest piqued as the playful smirk on Suho’s lips fell away, his eyes flickering with a deep, troubling darkness. “We don’t usually get them this far from the mountain.”   
  
Suho nodded, bracing his elbows on the corner of the desk, resting his chin in his upturned palm. “That’s the problem. We’re not as equipped and protected for bears. People are scared.”   
  
Chanyeol balked at him. “And you want me to kill it? Isn’t that illegal?”   
  
“Since when do you care about the law?” Suho challenged, suddenly standing up from his seat, and the irony practically reached out and slapped Chanyeol hard across the face.

 

He couldn’t help but snort, shaking his head in disbelief. “You’re the Sheriff-”   
  
Suho’s expression darkened again, and Chanyeol felt something deep inside of him stir. The sudden discomfort crawled up the back of his throat like a thick slime. “You and I both know that that means nothing up here,” Suho whispered. “I keep these people from going mad and killing each other. The threat of a bear is only going to drive people to the edge- they act out when they’re afraid.”

 

“I don’t know…”   
  
“Chanyeol,” Suho pleaded. “I’m at my wits end. I’m drowning in calls and complaints. It’s only a matter of time until the bear kills someone. What if it gets a kid?”   
  
Chanyeol absolutely despised the way Suho manipulated him, time and time again, into running these errands, yet it offered him a haven from the life destined by the cold. In becoming one with the snow, blizzards, and the jagged, hazardous mountains, Chanyeol could escape the disillusionment of the society behind him. Vickery was a place of isolation where the people withered away and convinced themselves of their own absurd realities- living in blindness of what happens around them, and selfishly focuses upon themselves rather than accepting the grief and fear in life. Upon a mountain, Chanyeol could  _ breathe,  _ breathe deeply in without suffocating. In the snow, among the caves, it was if nothing else existed but him, the animals, and the elements. 

 

Though he despised it, Chanyeol couldn’t bring himself to deny Suho. He was right in that it was a massive threat to the people and other wildlife in the town. He would have to sacrifice one life, for perhaps, hundreds of others. 

 

“Fine,” Chanyeol finally murmured, his head hanging heavy. “You have a deal. But bears are hell to track, so I’ll need time.”   
  
“Whatever you need, you’ve got it,” Suho assured. “As long as you kill that bear before it kills any of us, we shouldn’t have any problems.” 

 

Chanyeol nodded and shifted his weight to his left hip. He hadn’t tracked a bear in years, and the last time he had, he never even saw the bear. Especially in an area so rare to bear population, Chanyeol wasn’t sure where to even start. However, the sun was rapidly falling below the horizon, and the thick gray clouds billowed across the dark, starless sky. 

 

The bear would wait until the morning.

 

When he arrived home, Chanyeol was met with the suffocating silence he became close friends with the past two years in his empty lodge. Since  _ his  _ disappearance, Chanyeol couldn’t stand the air in his cabin, the thick silence taunting him as he shedded off his snow gear and boots and climbed into bed. 

 

He let the deafening silence list him off to sleep.   
  


  
  



	2. II

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chanyeol makes a discovery he'd rather forget.

_ 2  _

 

Before the sun even awoke and painted the dark, purple domed-sky with brilliant, thick rays of gold, Chanyeol left his home, duffle bag in tow and draped in white camouflage that would blend him into one entity with the snowy landscape. He always ventured out before the sun rose: the sky was pure and deep, the air pristine and clean. Despite the freezing cold air, he could  _ breathe.  _ Corruption slept peacefully in its wicker bed, trouble settled beneath the rolling mountains, pollution thinned in the air. Everything in these early, daydreaming hours were perfect. Plus, it was prime time to catch a rogue bear. 

 

His snowmobile sputtered to life, its dim headlights breaking through the night’s darkness, shining a path along the snow. He climbed on, securing his duffle bag to the back before kicking it into gear. While in the thick snow it became practically useless, the old, rickety machine managed to cut the travel time in half and allowed for easy transport of game. According to Suho, who sold him the machine for dirt cheap, it had belonged to a man- Jongdae- who lived here a few years before Chanyeol moved there after college. Apparently, he had gone mad after getting lots in the wilderness for six days. No one really knew the legend of what happened after, just that Jongdae lost his nerve and disappeared from the town. Most folks, like Suho, assumed he packed up his belongings and moved into the city, where constant wildlife was scarce. Suho had assumed that the tale would dissuade Chanyeol from the job, but it had not. He understood the consequences of nature- of living in a place so desolate and dangerous. The nature is bitter, and the people even more so. But it is the exchange of that isolation that brings Chanyeol the peace he so desperately craved after  _ he  _ disappeared those years ago.

 

_ “You’re beautiful.” _ _   
_ _   
_ _ “Please, babe. I’m trying to work,” he said so sweetly.  _ _   
_ _   
_ _ Chanyeol smiled and stroked his hair behind his hair, bending over his work on the table. “You’re always working,” he pouted. “Give me attention.” _ _   
_ _   
_ __ He smiled, wide, and offered Chanyeol a soft kiss on the cheek. “I promise I will,” he whispered. “Five more minutes, okay?”

 

_ Chanyeol tilted his head. “Five minutes? You promise?” _ _   
_ _   
_ __ He held out his pinky finger, the side of the pale skin smudged with navy blue ink. His face scrunched beautiful, thick glasses framing his delicately shaped face.. His fingers were short but skinny; Chanyeol always loved to play with them. His smile was crooked and curled, imperfect.

 

_ Everything about them was imperfect. _

_ But their imperfections wrote themselves in the constellations as beauty- as close to perfection as perfection could get. _

 

_ “I promise.” _ _   
_ _   
_ _ “Okay,” Chanyeol said. “I love you.” _ _   
_ _   
_ _ “I love you, too.” _ _   
_ _   
_ __ “Happy Valentine’s day.”  

 

Six years later, Chanyeol still found himself hiking mountains using the same old, red snowmobile that a local horror legend used. It didn’t bother him much. He knew some men were weaker than others. He happened to be one of the strong ones. Surviving in such a place was only a battle scar of such. Chanyeol was confident in his mental sturdiness; it took alot to truly shake him. Daily, he witnessed mountain lions tearing into the thick and leathery flesh of bear carcsses or elk, and he hardly bat an eyelash, simply lifting his rifle up against his chest, releasing a deep breath, and drawing the trigger. It was part of the lifestyle, and those who couldn’t hang with the cruel beauty of nature- the wind, caves, the blood on a wolf’s snout- were bound to lose. 

 

As he drove up to the base of the nearest mountain, flat snowy plains turning into disguised black rock and mud, Chanyeol ditched the snowmobile, unable to ride it any further. He hoisted the duffle bag over his shoulder along with his rifle, tugging a thin piece of fabric over his mouth and moving goggles down over his eyes as he started to hike up the mountain. He fingers twitched, ready to draw his rifle and shoot at any moment. The sun began to creep up above the horizon as he reached the peak of the shallowest mountain in the valley. It was still a massive hike, the mountain side treacherous with sharp, jagged boulders and loose, steep expanses of snow. A wrong move, a shout, anything, could cause an avalanche, and everything Chanyeol had built would be destroyed. Depending on the size, the entire northern sector of the town could be buried beneath meters of snow. 

 

So, he traveled with caution, testing each step before tilting his body weight and hoisting himself up over the edge of the peak. From where he was perched, he could see the entire sweeping valley leading into the north section of town. Power lines only looked like thin black streaks across a white landscape, some lights from the minimalist town twinkling through the dawn overhang of the sky. 

  
Someone once told him that people came here to die. But from where he stood, he saw only beauty bursting at the seams of a desolate land trapped underneath meters of snow. This was a beauty most people would overlook, opting for a tropical paradise, but Chanyeol wouldn’t rather be anywhere else. This was home to him. And if he died here, so be it.

 

Hours passed, and Chanyeol had seen no sign of any bear. He searched high and low, trekking around the base of every mountain and up any ones he could climb, but he ultimately came up short. He knew bears could be fickle, especially this time of year, and it would take a few days of diligent tracking and laying traps in order to catch it. He wasn’t worried, however. Chanyeol was the best in the business, hence why he was the only one in the business. The entire town depended on him to eradicate the predators that threaten the people and livestock. Without him, families would’ve gone hungry months ago. 

 

The sky began to darken with thick, gray storm clouds. The snow storms here were vicious, and Chanyeol knew he couldn’t get caught in one. Not now. He picked up his duffle bag, clinging to the string of rabbits he had hunted down on his journey, and started to head back to his snowmobile before it got buried in the snow. He traced around the opposite way he came from in an extra measure for searching for the bear- making sure he did not miss a single cave or niche. As he walked down, snow weighing like anvils at his ankles, something caught his eye. 

 

A meter or so to his left, the snow was disturbed, as if something heavy was thrown down into it, and smears of a deep crimson drew a trail over a hill and into the forest. His heart stopped in his chest, the drag-marks of the blood resembling no animal he had every observed. The initial disturbance in the snow was violent, and Chanyeol could imagine the poor beast that got caught there thrashing against the cold ground, gripping at the snow and kicking at it in a desperate attempt for freedom. He drew out his rifle, resting the butt against his shoulder before he started to follow along side the marks, the blood thinning and thickening in its trail periodically. 

The further he walked, the more blood there was, and the harder Chanyeol’s heart hammered against his rib cage. He could only hear the sound of his veins rushing in his ears- or was that the wind? For the first time in his life, his hands shook, and the sight of a mound of blue tarp met his gaze.

  
He crept forward, dread creeping in his body with each heavy step before he came to stand over the mound buried deep in the snow. From the blue tarp wrapped around the weight, he could see strands of black hair laced with icicle droplets. Shaking, he knelt down beside it and pulled away the frozen tarp, the material cracking and groaning, until the dead, beady eyes of a woman met his own- a woman he recognized. 

  
  


* * *

  
  


“You said you found her here?” Suho questioned, ducking under the police tape surrounding the crime scene. His face was pale and framed with his fur-lined hood. The storm was coming quickly, but there was nothing they could do but wait to move the body.

 

Chanyeol nodded, shoving his hands into his coat pockets. “I did. Found a disruption in the snow,” he said. “Looked like a struggle. I assumed it was...some animal fight.”   
  
“We’re not equipped to deal with this on our own.”

 

He looked at Suho, perplexed. “What do you mean?”   
  
“No one gets murdered here. It just doesn’t happen,” he grumbled. “We have drugs, we have crime, we have vandalism, but we do  _ not  _ have murder.” 

 

“This town is tiny. It’s not like it would be hard to find out who did this,” Chanyeol interjected. “And we don’t know for sure it’s homicide. The disturbance in the snow could be an impact, she could’ve fallen. You know how many people get lost in these mountains.” No matter how much Chanyeol wanted to believe that, there was something nagging at him deep down that told him there was something more to this. And he assumed it was the same little nagging feeling that gnawed at the Sheriff. Plus, she wasn’t lost. Chanyeol knew it.

 

Suho tilted his head toward Chanyeol, looking exhausted. “I have to call in the Feds,” he said. “I know they won’t do anything but berate us, declare it an accident, and leave, but I don’t have a choice.” 

 

“I understand,” Chanyeol said. “The storm’s comin’ in quick. We can’t touch anything until the Feds get here anyway. We should head back down the mountain.”   
  
The Sheriff nodded, turning to move. “How’s Kyungsoo holding up?” 

 

“How do you think he’s holding up?” He challenged. “His wife was just found dead.”

 

* * *

  
  


_ “You know I love you, right?” _ _   
_ _   
_ _ “Mhm..” _ __   
  


_ “You don’t really sound like you mean it,” he pouted.  _

 

_ “I love you too. With my whole heart,” Chanyeol promised.  _

_   
_ _ He sighed. “I hate when you work late.” _ _   
_ _   
_ _ “I know,” Chanyeol murmured. He was hunched over his desk, hand cramping from filing paperwork from his standard, boring desk job. He was working at an insurance firm for the summer, earning a good amount of money. They were planning on moving to New York, so they needed every penny they could make. “I know I’m working a lot, but it’s for our dream.” _ _   
_ _   
_ _ “I get that,” he whispered, leaning his head against Chanyeol’s back. “I just miss you. I never see you anymore.” _ _   
_ _   
_ _ “I promise you,” Chanyeol interjected, turning around in his swivel chair and pulling him into his lap, brushing his long, black bangs from his eyes. “A couple more months, and we’ll be in New York, living the life we always wanted to have.” _ _   
_ _   
_ _ “Promise?” He smiled. _ _   
_ _   
_ __ “Cross my heart.” Chanyeol offered him his pinky finger, linking it with his and kissing his knuckle. “Hope to die.”

 

_ He pecked Chanyeol on the lips, hooking his arms around his neck. “Stick a needle in my eye.” _ _   
_

* * *

 

Chanyeol sat in Kyungsoo’s living room, hands folded over each other. His palms were sweaty, anxiety gnawing at him as he waited for Suho to come in with Do Kyungsoo in tow. The news traveled like wildfire through the desolate town, and it wasn’t long before Chanyeol was bombarded on his walk back from the mountain with questions about the body he had found- the woman he had found.

 

Is it true, they had asked.

  
God, Chanyeol wished it wasn’t true. He met Kyungsoo within his first week in town, and the latter had taken him under his wing, showing him where not to go and how to avoid the most trouble. He had met Tani, his wife, the same day. They were freshly married, their cheeks still accompanied with a bright, vibrant glow that was brighter than the crystalized snow on the ground. He had envied them, hated them even. Their happiness a scalding knife that dug into his chest over and over again, constantly taunting him and reminding him of what he  _ almost  _ had, before the world stripped everything away from him.  

 

Yet as the years past, the envy faded and replaced with hope and admiration. They were a bright constellation in a bleak and desolate sky, nothing but nobodies and snow surrounding such a vibrant pair. Chanyeol wished he could find something like that again, but by moving out into the wilderness like he did, he knew he had cursed himself to a life of solitude. 

 

But perhaps that was for the better.

 

Chanyeol was stirred from his thoughts, his hands now cradling a framed photo of Kyungsoo’s wife, her smile bright and stretched thin, her eyes crinkled yet sparkling, when Suho came down from the stairs, features withered with exhaustion.    
  
Wordlessly, Chanyeol set aside the picture and stood, picking at his nails as he stared at the sheriff expectantly. 

 

“He’s asleep. I had the doctor give him a little something,” he finally said after a tense moment of silence. “He wanted to see her- the body- but I can’t let him. Not now.”   
  
“It’s still under federal investigation,” Chanyeol agreed, his voice hoarse and thick. His words felt like sharp nails raking up against his throat, his mouth burning with every shallow breath he took. “We can’t leave him alone. We don’t know what he’ll do.”   
  
Suho nodded. “I asked Dr. Zhang to stay in there with him, make sure everything’s alright overnight.”

  
“You don’t… You don’t think Kyungsoo did it, do you?” Suho continued, his voice timid and weak as he spoke. “Not that I think that- I just… It’s a possibility isn’t it?”   
  


He couldn’t contain the grimace he shot the sheriff. “What?”   
  
“I don’t  _ know! _ ” He cried. “We don’t deal with this stuff here! On those- those cop shows, they always suspect the spouse first.”   
  
“You’ve known Kyungsoo since he was  _ born, _ ” Chanyeol chided. “I understand what you mean, but just… no. They were the crown jewel of this town.  _ She  _ was the jewel of this town- of his life.” 

 

Suho’s expression crumpled, and he took a seat. Chanyeol could tell by the way his knees and hands trembled that he was horrified with himself for such a question. He didn’t blame him. The police force here wasn’t equipped to deal with crimes at this scale. Drug busts, sure, but half the kids into the drug scene were sons of officers anyway. To say there was a good justice system and police force would be a tremendous overstatement. 

 

“I’m sorry,” Suho whispered. “I’m in over my head.”    
  
“It’s okay,” Chanyeol whispered.    
  


He felt like he was suffocating. The grief weighing heavily in the air was everything similar to the months he spent withering away in his room, bills stacking on his countertop and voicemails filling his inbox. He couldn’t pick himself up after it, and just now he was starting to piece himself back together, but now, Kyungsoo’s loss weighed so heavily on his heart that he was sure his ribs would crack from the pressure.

  
“The storm’s raging outside,” Chanyeol said instead, turning his attention to the windows on either side of the aged-brick fireplace. The sky was completely blocked by a thick, swarming layer of white as snow raged down from the heavens, leaking feet of snow in its wake. The one good thing about the snow storms, however, is that they never lasted long. For minutes, snow would pound the ground unrelentlessly, only for the sun to peak through just after, giving them all a false sense of hope until the next storm came by. 

 

“You should head home,” Suho suggested. “You had a long day, and I’m sure the Feds will want to talk to you when you get here.”

 

“When  _ are  _ they even getting here?” Chanyeol snarled, glaring out the window again. The Feds had a history of leaving tiny towns like these in the dust when it came to assistance, and Chanyeol was certain whoever the government would send wouldn’t do much to help the minds of the people, only label it as a cold-case homicide and leave them all in the wake of their grief.

 

“I don’t know,” he said. “The woman I talked to on the phone said they were dispatching an agent to us today, but with this storm, the poor guy won’t get here until morning at the best.”

 

Chanyeol glanced at the wooden staircase leading up to Kyungsoo’s bedroom, his heart heavy in his chest. He wished he could have found her sooner, could’ve somehow stopped her death, but he knew all he could do now was be there for his best friend, the same way he had been there for him when he first came to this god-forsaken town. He knew grief like an old friend, and he wasn’t looking forward to visiting it again.

 

* * *

 

Chanyeol insisted that he drive Suho back to the police station where he planned to wait for the Feds to arrive, no matter how long it took. As they pulled up through the driveway, which, through the storm, turned more into a field of snow, Chanyeol noticed a black SUV slipping in a rough patch of ice, the driver moving inch by inch as the snow pounded at the car from the side. He had never seen the car before, the fat yellow letters  _ F-B-I  _ were printed along the side.

 

“Well, I’ll be damned,” Suho whispered. Chanyeol put the car in park.

 

“I’ll lead him up to the house. Poor bastard probably can’t see five feet in front of him,” he said. “You drive up.” He slid out of the car, pulling his hood up over his head as he trudged towards the SUV in front of them. 

  
He stepped up alongside the window, rapping on the tinted blackness with his knuckles. A few seconds passed, and the window rolled down, revealing a man with light brown hair, a red nose, and angry brown eyes. Chanyeol found himself amused at the distressed expression on his face, yet found himself appalled that the FBI had sent them someone who looked so...squishy. He hardly looked like someone to handle a homicide. 

  
“Follow me,” Chanyeol offered, leaning close to the cracked window. “The sheriff’s office is just up this way.”   
  
The man inside the vehicle nodded frantically and rolled the window back up. Chanyeol trekked in front of the car, walking backwards through the thickening snow, making sure the kid didn’t run into anything pulling up under the carport. After almost getting run over about four times, he finally parked under the carport, luckily with Chanyeol in one piece. By the time he had parked, the storm began to thin and the sun already started to creep out of the thick storm clouds. 

 

The federal agent stepped out of the car, a shivering disaster with flushed cheeks and tousled hair. He was a solid half foot shorter than Chanyeol, which caused him to snicker. “They sent you?” he asked, raising his eyebrows.    
  
The FBI agent glared at him, pulling his thin jacket around himself as he stomped towards Chanyeol. “Yeah. Byun Baekhyun, FBI,” he growled, flashing a golden badge at him. “Where’s the body?” 

  
  
  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here is the first official chapter.   
> Hope you all enjoy it.  
> The pacing may be a bit weird, so I apologize, but I don't want some things to take an excessive amount of time developing. Future chapters will be longer. These first two are mainly introductory and setting up the town/setting/characters.


End file.
